A small group has been working with Cornwall Council planners on the Town Framework Study. This identifies areas for expansion of the two towns based on criteria such as available land, access to transport links, schools, neighbourhood centres and landscape issues. Most of the sites idnetified are in the halo around the towns. This is due to go out to consultation in June and will inform planning policy.
Port of Falmouth Master Plan
The consultation was now over and had proved informative. There were few major surprises but there were some issues still to resolve. The partners are now working on their final proposals which will be completed by 19 June and will go CC Cabinet in July for endorsement.
All we need now is permission to dredge even though there were many other projects in the Docks would be going ahead anyway.
Cruise ships
A very successful cruise ship visit had taken place on 7 May: 3,000 passengers who were delivered by shuttle boats to the town. A record 31 tour coaches were used. The Ambassadors were appreciative of the help of the BID and other partners. If only she had been able to moor alongside ...
Future of the Tourist Information Centre
This had now closed although it wa sunderstood that a post-midnight attempt was still being made to re-open it. A private sector alternative might yet emerge. The discussions around its closure had been confused, slow and drawn out which had not helped a smooth transfer to a new model.
Traffic in the main street
There has been no further progress on discussions with CC about partial closure of Church Street Car Park. Their traffic survey started in Augsut 2010 was still too secret to be discussed or even shared with anyone in the town. It was highly likely, therefore, that another summer season would go by without any meaningful discussions or experiment of alternative traffic management.
The CC report on contamination has also not been published or, apparently, acted upon.
The BID team and Town Manager were discussing a number of ideas to encourage greater use of the town for shopping, including possibly paying to open all the car parks free of charge for a series of key days.
Town issues
Much work was being done by the BID team and Town Manager on:
- Dressing the town with flags and baskets
- Producing a new version of the map and a poster of the major events
- A full range of festivals was planned for the year (see the Falmouth website for details)
- A new shopper bag
- A new bench to be sited in the Market Strand area
- Public relations
Twelve Cornish towns have been invited to bid for money from a joint government/CC fund of £400k which is available to support a range of improvements. It was agreed that the BID team was ideally suited to lead this. Possible matching money might be obtained from other sources such as Convergence. Expressions of interest are due by 29 July.
350 Anniversary of Falmouth Charter
Work is progressing on a programme to celebrate this event which would be officially launched, along with a suitable beer, on Monday 16 May. The bid to the HLF had failed on a technicality but was being revived.
The Forum was committed to helping develop a vision for the next ten years and Chris Smith would be leading on this.
BIDs on the Industrial Estates
The idea of developing BIDs on the industrial estates had been dropped because the business case did not look sound. Instead, a proposal for another piece of work looking at the rest of the waterfront in the Port area (including all the Penryn river), coupled to the industrial estates, in order to highlight opportunities and develop a strategy.
Connecting Cornwall 2010 - Local Transport Plan
The Forum had responded to the consultation on the Implementation Plan. A final version of the Plan had not been published and it was thus unclear what was being planned in Falmouth over the coming three years. Rumours were that the outstanding road repairs in Arwennack Street were to be started 'soon'.
Maritime and Coastguard Agency
The Forum had responded to the consultation about the Falmouth MRCC and had received a long, if tangential reply.
Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)
Chris Pomfret had been appointed as chairman. It was expected that the other directors would be named soon. There would be six appointees from CC and seven private sector ones.
Cornwall Council
CC is going through another re-organisation into a series of Arms Length Organisations (ALMOs), allowing the Council to be a more strategic body. Over £1bn of planning applications were being discussed which suggested that investments were still being made.
In brief:
- The Community Alive event would be held in the Poly on 21 May. More details
- The Tremough Culture Festival would also be happening on 21 May More details
- Following cuts in their budgets, Falmouth Befriending were looking to raise £20,000 a year and needed help, ideas and money More details
- The short version of the Community Plan had been produced and coies were in the post
Mike Varney - Cornwall Council
Scott Sharples - Cornwall Council
Dick Stiles - Civic Society
Tim Light – Fal River Links
David Pollard – Falmouth Ambassadors
Richard Gates - Falmouth Town Manager
Malcolm Farrar - Falmouth Chamber of Commerce
Shaun Davie – Falmouth and District Hotels Association
John Langan - Falmouth Harbour Commissioners
David Stedman - Falmouth Marine School
Oliver Cramp – Falmouth Town Council
Jackie George – Falmouth Watersports
Jonathan Griffin – National Maritime Museum Cornwall (Chairman)
Michael Jenks - RCPS (The Poly)
Nigel Druce - Rotary
Lorely Lloyd - Transition Falmouth
Jilly Easterby – UCF & the University of Exeter
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